OLDaily

by Stephen Downes
May 1, 2009

CCL Update
Canada's national organization for educational research, the Canadian Council for Learning, is on the bubble, its future in question. Its mandate was extended a year without additional funding, so the five regional knowledge centres - Aboriginal Learning, Adult Learning, Early Childhood Learning, Health and Learning and Work and Learning - will no longer be funded as of July 6. No further committment to funding exists beyond 2010. The CCL was founded in 2004 and funded by Human Resources and Social Development Canada. More coverage (in French) here, and a CBC report (in English) here (jump to 13:25 of the report).
Press Release,
Canadian Council on Learning,
May 1, 2009 [Link] [Tags: Video, Canada]
[Comment]

Open Opportunties, Open Threats?
"It's highly unlikely that those who have invested considerable finance, effort, and reputations in the construction of a hard and soft proprietary infrastructure are willingly going to change horses," writes Derek Morrison. It's a bit like switching from fossil fuels. Even if the alternatievs are better, or even cheaper, there's just too much invested in the existing infrastreucture. But for those facing a switch, there are compelling reasons to consider open source alternatives. "The Web 2.0 ethos of being external facing, encouraging user-generated content, collaboration, and sharing aligns more comfortably with the open source world rather than the "walled garden" model underlying proprietary platforms."
Derek Morrison,
Auricle,
May 1, 2009 [Link] [Tags: Web 2.0, Open Source]
[Comment]

Video File Formats, What and When to Use
What I like about this item is that it doesn't try to be an encyclopedia or to analyze all possible options. Instead, it addresses directly the question: what video format should I use. That's a great question, and from my own experience I can say that leigh Blackall's solutions and explanations are sound. Related: the TED blog is promoting the free and open source Miro player which will play a wide variety of video formats.
Leigh Blackall,
Weblog,
May 1, 2009 [Link] [Tags: Video, Experience]
[Comment]

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